It was about artists not songwriters. Certainly there were those bands that we gravitated to because of a very strong affinity to the songwriting craft they regularly displayed, and within those bands there were sometimes individuals–Andy Partridge in XTC, Paul Westerberg in the Replacements–who were usually elevated above their fellow members as uniquely gifted at matching words and music. But, by and large, we didn’t expect the songwriting talents of those individuals to get shopped around. Their songs were on their records, and that was that. Of the individuals who regularly snuck onto college playlists back in the late eighties and early nineties, probably the only one I thought of as a songwriting first and a performer second was Jules Shear.

There were good reasons for that perception. Though Shear had been kicking around in the music business for quite a while and had taken stabs with several bands, his greatest successes were songs that others top into the Top 40. It was almost a prerequisite that any discussion of Shear included a citation of the songs that others had carried to glory while he kept releasing albums in relative obscurity. Beyond that, there was one particular song penned by Shear which was getting passed around like a Smokey Robinson original in Motown’s Hitsville U.S.A. house.

“If We Never Meet Again” appeared on Big Boss Sounds, the sole album released by Shear’s band Reckless Sleepers, which was released in the summer of 1988. At around the same time, Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers released their debut on Columbia Records. It also included “If We Never Meet Again,” and the song was even chosen to be one of the singles from the record. A couple years after that, Roger McGuinn of the Byrds released a comeback solo effort–his first in over a decade–and decided that the perfect song to close the album was “If We Never Meet Again.” None of these versions of the song became a tremendous commercial success, but it was still a little strange to have so many different versions of the song to choose from in the station’s library. It was a little bit like the producer a few years later who kept overseeing covers of Ednaswap’s “Torn” until he finally turned it into a massive hit.

Though he clearly earned a lot of respect in certain corners of the music industry, Shear’s name isn’t invoked all that often any longer. For most, he’s probably little more than an especially tricky trivia answer, maybe relating to the fact that he was the initial host of MTV Unplugged, before the music network’s execs figured out that the last thing that show needed was a host. He remains stuck in my head, though, as that much-admired songwriter who couldn’t quite catch a break. And, truth is, that Reckless Sleepers album deserved to be bigger than it was.

Reckless Sleepers, “If We Never Meet Again”

(Disclaimer: Okay, since the focus was on songwriter and the person credited by the publishing company gets a couple nickels when the music is bought, let’s go ahead and run the gamut on this one. The Reckless Sleepers album appears to be out of print, but it is available for purchase digitally. Amazingly, Tommy Conwell’s records are still available on a combo disc. Roger McGuinn’s Back From Rio is apparently out of print, but can be purchased as bit of data that stream to you over an internet connection. Hell, while we’re at it, it’s easy as can be to get the song that Bangles turned into a modest hit and the song that Cyndi Lauper turned into a far more immodest hit. Though I’ve provided links to a monolithic online retailers, patronizing your favorite local, independently-owned record store will make you feel so much better about yourself. Usually at this point, I promise to remove the uploaded song if asked, but, come on, have I urged enough actual commerce here to get a pass on that. Probably not. Fine, fine, it comes down and gets packed gently back into my own person collection if asked by someone who has any business asking. Sigh and grumble.)